The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation told officials in the town of Signal Mountain that they must increase storm water violation fines to $10,000 per violation.
According to Dr. Richard Urban of the Division of Water Pollution Control, in a Sept. 4 letter to Mayor Paul Hendrick, said Signal Mountain's storm water program "is doing and has done a lot of good things." He also wrote, however, that he and his colleagues are concerned "about the enforcement weakness inherent in this program. For this reason, we strongly encourage a reevaluation by the town council to strengthen the program by increasing the penalties upward to $10,000."
He also noted that other communities in Tennessee are taking such steps and that Signal Mountain should support stricter enforcement to keep compliant.
The town received unsatisfactory construction site runoff and postconstruction runoff control ratings based on recent inspections. Signal Mountain also received failing marks for not providing classroom education on storm water or implementing a storm water stenciling program.
As for the handling of failing septic systems, the town earned a more marginal grade. Dr. Urban said that what Signal Mountain needs to do to earn higher marks here is improve communication with the Chattanooga-Hamilton Countty Health Department. "The town is receiving complaints, conducting inspections and notifying [the health department] when necessary on failing septic systems," he wrote. "The town needs to develop a system/plan to allow them to have better communication with [the health department] to ensure that they receive proper feedback to allow close-out of complaints."
Dr. Urban also wrote in his letter that the town got marginal ratings for sanitary sewer overflow. "In 2002-2003, the sanitary sewer system was turned over to Hamilton County Waste Water Treatment Authority. The town is not aware of any changes or modifications to the system," he said. "In an effort to completely understand the storm water system, it is pertinent for the town to request written updates to any and all modifications made to the sanitary sewer system by WWTA, and maintain all records received from WWTA."
Source: chattanoogan.com
